Reviews

This is a "sort of" soft shell with a 200 or 300 weight…

This is a "sort of" soft shell with a 200 or 300 weight shearling fleece interior. The fleece interior is unbelievably soft! The front pocket (chest) is too small to get your hand into. The front of the jacket is actually a double layer of itself.

The pockets were created by sewing a piece of the soft shell fabric, fleece and all, to the front panels and then cutting holes for pockets and installing zippers. That means the front of the jacket is double protection! The front zipper seem to be unusually (for Patagonia) flimsy. The collar is not the same fleece as the rest of the coat, it is some pansy micro fleece. The sleeves are wonderfully long and the torso is long enough. The body is a bit big but not as big as most Patagonia stuff.

This is definitely a high loft soft shell with some good features, and some features lacking. Patagonia describes it as having a "discontinuous PU" membrane between the outer shell and inner fleece. I asked Patagonia what this meant and the response was: the jacket is wind-resistant and not windproof, and this jacket is not water-resistant, and that PU stood for Polyurethane.

This is not really what I would consider a soft shell since it is not water-resistant. Too bad, if only they had given it a DWR coating...